DAN’S SHOPPING TRIP Dan’s recent shopping trip didn’t quite pan out as expected. Yes, there was relaxation, laughter and happinesss, but also tension, tears and some downright dangerous times - well, make yourself a cuppa and let us fill you in on the story …. Dan and Lisa stopped off in Dubai for a long weekend to visit some friends on their way to Indonesia. They arrived on Thursday morning and had a calm, peaceful time for the first couple of days - and then on the Saturday it all kicked off. Due to the situation in the Middle East, Dubai airport was now closed so Dan and Lisa were unable to catch their onward flight to Jakarta. Despite this, they made the most of their time in Dubai, stayed positive about the shopping trip and kept trying to book other flights to Indonesia from nearby airports as a back-up plan, including on the following Saturday from next-door Oman involving a 3 hour taxi journey to the Dubai/Oman border with another 4 hour taxi journey to the airport. Then they discovered that the border crossing was totally congested with the huge queues of people trying to leave the country. Dan and Lisa had been trying to call Emirates airlines every day but it was impossible to get through. Eventually they set their alarms for 3am to call when the lines were less busy, and after both waiting for nearly 2 hours on separate phones, they managed to book a flight to Birmingham on the following Sunday - back up plan number 2. Every day they were getting the Dubai government missile warnings very loudly on their mobile phones which got a bit scary, not least because everybody got them at the same time, substantially increasing the volume. Then the all-clear message would come through making everybody jump again. On Thursday afternoon Dan and Lisa were sheltering in the hotel basement after another missile warning and they decided it might not be such a good idea to carry on to Indonesia as they discovered that others were now struggling to get flights out of there as well. Lisa was at the end of her tether and Dan decided that things were getting too risky and they had to get out of Dubai one way or another. Dubai airport was now running select flights, and despite having been warned not to go to without a booking, Dan and Lisa got up early and went straight to the airport. The ticket desk was closed but a wonderful Emirates employee, Annalisa, took pity on the stressed and weary travellers, disappeared behind the scenes and returned with a big smile to say she had managed to get them seats on a flight to London at 3pm. Dan and Lisa couldn’t have been more relieved and Annalisa and the airport check-in staff were the happy recipients of the presents Dan had in his suitcase to give the suppliers and school staff in Bali. Although the missile warning went off again only 2 hours before the flight took off, they got the all clear 30 minutes later and the flight took off with an extremely happy Dan and Lisa on board. Dan and Lisa were really impressed with the way that everybody in Dubai calmly dealt with a very dangerous and tricky situation - the hotel staff, airport staff, the UAE government - it was all so well organised and geared towards keeping everyone safe. They wish their friends in Dubai well and hope that the situation ends quickly. And although they never got to Indonesia, Dan is currently waking up at 3am UK time to do live video calls with all the suppliers he was due to meet. In fact, he’s got loads of fabulous new products on order already - keep your eyes peeled for these lovely new goodies later this year. We also hope to bring you news of our 2026 School Project as soon as we get it. We are all really proud of Dan and Lisa for remaining so positive despite being caught up in a very scary situation, and we can’t deny it was a relief to get them back. Our intrepid travellers are already looking forward to catching up with all our lovely suppliers in Indonesia again in 2027 - watch this space!